Birth control insurance ruling will be laid down by the Supreme Court

This will settle a broad scale dispute occurring between the Obama administration and religious non-profits.

On Friday, the Supreme Court agreed that it would settle the ongoing birth control insurance dispute occurring between the Obama administration and certain religious non-profits.

This will surely place religious freedom and reproductive rights in the presidential campaign spotlight.

The justices gave the nod to hearing a challenge against the Affordable Care Act which will be made by seven non-profit organizations. Each of those different groups claim to have religious objections to the requirements of the health care reform. This is the second time in a span of three years that the birth control insurance mandates of the law have been placed before the Supreme Court. Moreover, it is the fourth time in a period of five years that the health care law bearing President Obama’s signature has gone before the top court in the country.

This latest Supreme Court hearing regarding birth control insurance is occurring only sixteen months after the last one.

In the last ruling, private companies with religious objections could not be required to play for the contraceptives of their employees. Now, in this latest hearing, the court is responding to the outcries of a range of religious schools, charities and hospitals that are also attempting to escape being forced to pay for birth control coverage.

This recent challenge will require the justices to decide whether or not the federal appeals court decisions will be overturned. Those previous decisions have determined that non-profit religious groups must take action in order to opt out of the contraceptive coverage requirement, instead of obtaining the overall exclusion that churches and other exclusively religious institutions are already receiving.

The Supreme Court has already rescued the Affordable Care Act from legal annihilation on two separate occasions. The first one in 2012 and the second one earlier in 2015. That said, in 2014 it ruled that closely-held corporations whose owners have an objection to contraception may be excused from providing free birth control insurance to their employees, turning it over to insurers and other groups to do it, instead.